Project Description:

    Nanoparticle-based solar cell

Abhinav Nellore spent his summer working on a new kind of solar cell based on light sensitive molecules attached to nanoporous titanium dioxide films. These cells exhibit energy conversion efficiencies as high as 10% but are very based on materials that are low cost and easy to fabricate. A key component of these cells are the titanium dioxide nanoparticles which are synthesized by precipitation from solution. Since the particles are the basic building blocks of the photoelectrodes, the performance of the cell is dependent on the properties of the nanoparticles. By using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, particles of a size of 2.5 nm (or 1/10millionth of an inch !) can be imaged. Abhi's project was to determine how the size of the nanoparticles increased with time during growth. This involved chemical synthesis of the nanoparticles in a titanium pressure vessel, and characterization of the particles with the 1 million dollar electron microscope. During the summer Abhi also made a laboratory-scale solar cell, which he used in his presentation to illustrate how these novel solar cells work.

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